Search Begins for New Japanese PM བོད་སྐད།

Japan's ruling party has begun hunting for someone to replace Prime
Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who has stepped down. Mr. Fukuda had been in office just
under a year. Jason Strother has more from Seoul.

Japan's ruling
Liberal Democratic Party can not seem to keep prime ministers in power for more
than 12 months. Yasuo Fukuda, who has been dogged by low approval ratings,
suddenly announced Monday he would resign from his position.

His
predecessor, Shinzo Abe, also stepped down as prime minister before reaching the
one year mark last year.

The LDP already is beginning the hunt for a new
party chief, who would become prime minister. A new party president will be
elected later this month.

The party's general secretary, Taro Aso, on
Tuesday said he was qualified for the job, although he has not directly said he
would be a candidate in the internal election.

Timothy Savage, deputy
director of the Nautilus Institute, a regional policy research group, in Seoul,
says the LDP is struggling to find a leader who can stay in
office.

"Well I think it's simply the unpopularity of the LDP in general
and the dissatisfaction of the general public with the ruling party," he said.
"What you have going on is the LDP is trying to hold on to its long standing
monopoly of power by shuffling in one unpopular prime minister and replacing him
with another unpopular prime minister."

With the opposition party in
charge of the upper house of Parliament, Savage says the LDP will most likely
have to call a general election in the next few months.

Should Aso
become prime minister, Savage says Japan's relations with its neighbors will be
rattled.

"Aso is defiantly aligned with the more nationalist right in
Japan. I think actually the biggest problem could be is with North Korea, where
there was recently some progress with the abduction issue under Fukuda," said
Savage.

In August, Tokyo and Pyongyang agreed to re-open an investigation
into the kidnappings of at least 13 Japanese civilians in the 1970s and '80s.

The LDP has dominated Japanese politics since the mid-1950s - leading
the government for all but about a year since then. The party now governs as
part of a coalition. However, it lost popularity over the last 15 years as
Japan's economy has faltered. Mr. Fukuda's administration was marred by
accusations of corruption and incompetence by some of his cabinet ministers. In
addition, the country is divided over the government's support for the war in
Iraq.